Use Lent to Examine Pastoral Structures with “clear, forward-looking vision”: DRC Cardinal

He acknowledges the value of the people of God and pastoral agents in the evangelization mission, saying that all efforts during the Lenten Season “must also and above all materialize in taking into account the situations of distress of the human person, who is the first structure and infrastructure of the Church.”

The traditional Lenten campaign of solidarity and sharing organized in Kinshasa Archdiocese during lent “requires all our sensitivity for the benefit of suffering members of our body and houses of formation,” he further says.

“I invite you once again not to hold back the momentum of your charity,” the Local Ordinary of Kinshasa Archdiocese, who doubles as the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) says.

He goes on to identify “prayer, penance and sharing” as the “three essential pillars of this Lenten journey.”

“Lent prepares us to celebrate the victory of God who, freeing his people from the slavery of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea, freed them from the spaces of death,” Cardinal Ambongo says.

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The Catholic Church leader, who started his Episcopal Ministry in March 2005 as Bishop of DRC’s Bokungu-Ikela Diocese reflected on the four-decade journey of the Israelites in the desert, saying, “The Lord took 40 years to shape his people, to endow them with fundamental institutions, to make them a holy nation.”

During the Lenten Season, “the liturgy of the Word will remind us of the structuring and symbolic value of time and space in salvation history,” the Catholic Church leader, who was elevated to Cardinal in October 2019, appointed member of the Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals in October 2020, and reappointed in March 2023 says.  

He explains, “The exodus, which is the prelude to our eternal Easter, represents the passage from a space of oppression to a space of freedom, from exploitation to dignity, from lack to superabundance, from insecurity to peace, and from death to life.”

The 64-year-old Congolese Cardinal goes on to invite the people of God “to take part in the various exercises of this Lenten Season.”

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.